What do you cook?

What country are you in? If you go to Asian stores in Germany for example, they will have flavoring packets that are good for one meal. Either various Asian ones as well as Indian curries. Then you don't need to buy extra spices. Dump it in the pan with your veggies/meat/rice.

Look for jars of sauces, like Aribiata, pestos, cream sauces. Then you don't need extra sauces.

Thank you, Laurel, for posting this topic. I'm always looking for stay-in meal ideas, too.

Last summer in Italy, I took advantage of the seasonal produce and made my own Caprese salad with fresh tomatoes, basil and mozzarella. Also, fresh melon with sliced prosciutto is a favorite. Eggs works out well, too, cooked a variety of ways... hard boiled, fried, scrambled, omelette.

People claim an advantage for renting apartments is that you can save money by cooking. But that is often difficult for the reasons you describe.

It depends significantly where one is staying. I like to shop at the local market halls and buy almost everything I need there. Fresh fruits (good for breakfast) and vegetables that can be sauteed. Eggs for breakfast are easy. Salads can be fresh greens with some figs or tomato and some oil and vinegar. I'll get a meat or fish that can be easily cooked in the oven or skillet. And of course a nice baguette or loaf of bread (with the olive oil or making pan con tomato). I keep it simple and actually view the "home" cooking as more of a rare treat than common. It's a treat for me because I love shopping at the market halls. I'm less interested in visiting grocery stores. I find that if you need seasonings and herbs, other than salt, pepper, oil and vinegar, you are probably trying to do too much or making it too complicated.

A little depends on what country you are in. When we get tired of our pasta options we buy a roasted chicken and fix a salad or try to recreate a dish we’ve experienced in a restaurant that we’ve liked. We also make soups from what’s in season at the markets and make enough for leftovers. We usually have a furnished house/kitchen though because we are doing a direct exchange. I can see that it would be a bit more challenging with odd pan sizes and limited seasonings. We fixed a tuna nicoise salad for a group of 8 in a 4’x4’ kitchen in a Paris apartment recently with one saucepan, a tiny refrigerator and one large salad platter.

I'm a very simple cook and I'm partial to omelettes. Eggs, cheese, butter, fresh veggies (onions, mushrooms, etc) and sliced deli meats are usually readily available and don't need a lot of spices. I also like to make sandwiches with meats and cheeses from the local market and some good local bread. Even when I rent an apartment I often don't have time to do a lot of cooking so I make sure a microwave is available for heating take away foods from markets. Not as cost effective as cooking my own but cheaper than most restaurants.

I find you have to keep it simple. A lot of ingredients or recipes calling for specific equipment that can’t be substituted is just too much.

I like eggs for this. An omlette, frittata, or just scramble, with a small bit of chopped meat, cheese, and vegetables. Very flexible and can use whatever is available. It’s a fine dinner or lunch - I don’t feel that eggs are only for breakfast.

I don’t like hard boiled eggs, but if you do that’s a good snack option and just requires eggs and a pot.

Baked fish or meats, again simple - just meat, oil and whatever spices or other flavorings are available. Serve it with pasta or rice or potatoes or veggies, depending on availability.

I actually don’t do salads unless the apartment has ok oil and vinegar or other dressing possibilities, or I’m staying long enough to make buying some worth it.

I also do a lot of fruit for breakfast. Whatever is available - I’ll buy some and cut it up. Fruit, yogurt, and bread is a fine breakfast for me. The only thing required is a knife (if the fruit needs to be chopped) and refrigerator.

It’s good to take stock of the kitchen before heading to the market. I’ve stayed in some apartments that seemed to be stocked by chefs - everything you can imagine is available, including spices and oils. Other times it’s very basic.

For dinners, I cook steaks, chicken parts, fish fillets. Things that can get by with only salt & pepper for seasoning with a little oil in the pan to prevent sticking. Macaroni and cheese is good too if I can buy smaller portions of the ingredients leaving no leftovers needing refrigeration, as are other pastas and sauces.

Breakfast is eggs with local pastry or toast, cheeses, sometimes bacon or ham or other local meat (I really like scrambled eggs with smoked Scottish salmon when in Scotland, for example). I stay away from cereal keeping to protein mainly. And of course have to have coffee.

Lunches I am usually out and about, but on the chance I am not, a sandwich with some cheese and salami or similar meats, a side of olives and pickles. I can usually get all these ingredients for one meal for 2 people at a local store for around €5. The key is quick and easy.

Soups or stews are usually too involved when I am not in the apartment all day. Don't like the chance they may cook dry and burn things up.

I found a small pack of containers for seasonings for travel that all snap together into a single stack somewhere (can't remember probably Amazon) that has 8 containers for dried spices. I usually fill that with what I might need for the trip (excluding salt & pepper) so not looking around for the small packets at my destination.

Coffee. Th-th-th that’s all folks.☕️

I am touring a foreign country, on vacation. At home I love to cook. On a trip, I don’t want to lose time by shopping, cooking, cleaning up and staring at pots and pans on a stove when I can be out exploring. If I wanted to cook, I could have stayed home. I have rented various places that had full kitchen facilities. The only thing I ever cooked was fresh pasta when I was in Como. Once.

When we rent apts we usually still eat dinner out, a favorite part of traveling for us. But I have bought fresh pasta and sauce in Greve to prepare for dinner in our rental house and one time in Venice bought a whole fish at Rialto market.
Also on another trip bought salmon in Switzerland to get away from the German food in restaurants, ugh. Added salads along with the fish.

I usually purchase deli salads and supplement with something easy (like eggs, which sound like a common thing) or a grilled cheese. The last time I had an apartment in Berlin, I ate a lot of what I would call "picnic" food - sliced meats, cheese, crackers, fruit, sliced veggies (washed down with local beer). Breakfast is typically yogurt and fruit or granola. I'm a foodie cook at home but I pretty much give up on that if the kitchen is...lacking. Good idea on the knives, that's usually the main thing lacking in the rental kitchen.

I came across this article not too long ago, it might provide some inspiration https://www.thekitchn.com/11-one-pot-dinners-to-cook-at-your-vacation-rental-232875

Muesli for breakfast, an uncooked picknicky sort of thing for either lunch or dinner. After a long, wonderful Italian lunch, we are so happy to just have bread, cheese, dried or fresh fruit, olives, deli meats, etc for dinner. But sometimes my husband does cook all of the things that people have mentioned just because he likes to and because we love an excuse to go to a farmers market or grocery store. We have several times purchased cookware for an apartment and left it there: knives, a cutting board, tea kettles, pasta strainer, etc. (Yes, we like an excuse to go to hardware or cookware stores, too.)

We will usually buy breakfast foods (cereal, bread for toast, yogurt, juice, milk, butter or margarine, tiny jars of jam that are good for a few slices of bread)...generally we aren't around for lunches. Otherwise, I will usually pick up pasta and sauce and shredded cheese - that's usually good for 3 suppers (we don't get tired of pasta)...and I've picked up chicken breast at the grocery store - last trip I got some that was already pre-cooked and vacuum sealed that only needed to be warmed up, and also on our last trip hit a farmer's market and got potatoes, carrots, a hunk of cheese and a rotisserie chicken already cooked and made that up for supper one night.

We've done pretty good with equipped kitchens - I'm trying to think if I've ever missed anything, and nothing major is coming to mind...we generally only cook if we are travelling when it's hot and go back to the room for the afternoon to cool down - we've never gone back to the room specifically to cook - it's usually to take a siesta and cooking just happens. Last trip - out of 12 nights, I cooked meals 4 of them. And we always had breakfast at the room. Eating supper all the time is $$ - generally running 30 euro or more for the two of us (and in Canadian dollars that adds up fast). But for less than 10 euro, I got the pasta/sauce/cheese and that was 3 meals right there.

We may do omelets for dinner, pickup take out food, or go out. Sometimes when we've had a heavy lunch we will just do cheese, bread and fruit. We even do this in a hotel room.
Keep it simple. Check out the local food stores and do what the locals do.
Just want to warn that if you use eggs in Europe, wash them well before breaking or cooking. Many times I've seen things on eggs straight from the farm.

We keep in simple. Pastas, chicken and vegetables, soups and sandwiches etc.

As vegans our answers will differ a bit, but that doesn't mean some of the ideas cannot translate. We do prefer to cook most of our food, as it's more economical (this was true even when we were omnivores). We also travel slowly, and cooking in allows us to travel more. We are also avid farmers market shoppers, which means we get to learn what grows where and when. Delicious learning. :-)

Breakfast is granola for me, muesli for Denis, and fresh, seasonal fruits. Although in Haarlem, the muesli notenbrood was truly excellent, and we don't own a toaster, so this was a treat.

Our middle meal is our major one. We do a lot of what we call "one pots" or "one pots over rice", very similar to many of those in the article referenced above. The problem comes when there is no pot large enough, or when there's no decent one for making rice. For us that means each should include starch (brown rice, quinoa, barley, couscous, bulgur, farro, pasta, potatoes), beans or lentils, and lots of vegetables. Specifics are dictated mostly by where we are. For example, in Rome we shopped at the morning market in Campo de Fiori. There a lovely family sold from bins of prepared minestrone mix. It was sold by the kilo, all I had to do was chop herbs! Now who can argue with the majority of the prep work being done for you, and at a very reasonable price?! With the addition of a can of tomatoes, a can of beans, and some pasta, along with a loaf of bread from the Forno (that seems to be its name) in the corner of the square, we were happy. It didn't take long to cook. All three of our Italian rentals had dried oregano.

Dinner is quite often a salad and some bread. Sigh, most European breads are soooooo good! We suffer withdrawal symptoms upon returning to the US.

With respect to spices, I followed a suggestion I read some time ago here. I measure things for recipes I'm sure I can find ingredients to prepare and take the little bags with us. They don't weigh much. We buy more as needed along the way. All is generally more cost effective at ethnic markets, like the Turkish one in Haarlem or the outdoor market in Rotterdam. Also don't discount the liberal use of fresh herbs instead.

And of course, there is the tourist staple of pasta. For us that includes lots of vegetables and, if it's lunch, beans. It would be interesting to know how many tourists cook pastas.

We have purchased knives, the occasional pot, an electric pressure cooker (we were three months in the UK, left it in the last one where it was put to good use), and storage containers.

We usually just have breakfast at the flats we rent. Fresh fruit, local bread/pastries, and local cheese/meat, yoghurt, and coffee. If we eat dinner in it is something light and simple with local ingredients from the market, but most of the time, we prefer to eat out.

In what country are you now?

For the future, I read about someone who brought an assortment of seasonings in small pill boxes. I thought that was a great idea.

I love to cook at home, but the first time a rented an apartment in Paris, I learned that the poorly equiped kitchen and lack of pantry staples limited my options. In Paris, I focused on the prepared food that were available in markets and bakeries (e.g., roast chicken, quiche, charcuterie) and foods that required minimal prep (e.g. in season fruit and vegetables) from the market. Good cheese and bread and a glass of wine is one of my favorite meals.

I love outdoor markets and foodhalls, so most of me meals are assembled from things that I find there.

As Kathy from this forum said “The only reason I have a kitchen, is because it came with the house”
I love that!
Hate cooking, I think thats one of the things I love about being on vacation, I don’t cook!

Great replies!

Ms Jo we are in Italy. As you may remember, we lived here for years. I am not a big fan of prepared sauces. My loss perhaps, but a worthy idea!

Christine seasonal produce is our friend, indeed, and local cheeses, etc. Found figs here the other day and they were divine with prosciutto!

Douglas we do save a lot by cooking! It is not the primary motivation as we simply like to cook, to use local products. I wish I had an oven where we are now! It would expand the possibilities!

Mona I love the image of the 4' x 4' kitchen! We had the tiniest kitchen when we lived in Rome, along with a tiny Italian convection oven and we still turned out fine meals. Hubby loves his eggs for breakfast so I indulge him a couple of times a week and a scramble is coming up shortly. Otherwise I love local, plain yogurt with fruit.

Mira ahhh, I wish I had an oven in this apartment! We love this place so (Ortisei) and the apartment is a dream except for the oven missing. I guess enough of their guests wouldn't use one.

Mark I am making scrambled eggs with salmon in a few minutes! We loved it in Scotland and frequently feature it. There is a place we stay in Lauterbrunnen (we'll be there in a few weeks) that has a slow cooker, so I will take advantage of that.

Philip we are such coffee lovers! We stayed where we are now in Ortisei for a month in 2016. We bought a Nespresso machine and left it with the owners. Each time we come back, she puts it in "our" apartment along with some storage containers we purchased while here.

Suki we love the eating out, too, but like to balance it. You are right: fish is pretty darn easy.

CL I love the article and will most likely make one of those dishes in a couple of days. Thanks!

Nancyscherer8 we do the smorgasbord sometimes, too, especially if we've had a big lunch. So fun to go to hardware stores!

Nicole P wish we had a toaster in this apartment. Next time we come back I may gift one to them! Italians do not do toast for the most part in my experience. There is good cooked chicken in the markets here so we buy that for our salads much as I do at home.

tgreen I do love that the eggs here are safe to leave at room temp and they taste so much better than grocery store eggs in the U.S. Fresh from the hen is a good thing, but a quick rinse does the trick!

sharon I am not after fancy, just some recipes and inspiration. Simple is good, especially if it keeps the washing up to a minimum.

Donna & Denis I loved that pre-chopped stuff when we lived in Rome! I do think I need to anticipate what I might use and bring along hard-to-find spices. This week I wanted ground cumin and there was none to be found.

SandyO I hear you. When I worked and we had shorter trips, we did not cook as much. Now I revel in it.

Laura we are in Italy, specifically the Alto Adige. I hear you on cheese, bread and wine! The best no-fiss meal anywhere!

divieloonie that is priceless! But we are cooks and so it goes.

There are non-cooks in other countries, too -- I look for boxed meals in the freezer section of the market. Canned goulash soup or other hearty soups. Local sausages and cheeses and breads. Roasted chicken and pre-made potato salad.
And any meal improves with a little local wine. Or a cold soda at grocery-store prices.
Granola/muesli and yogurt for breakfast or occasionally eggs.
And yes, I also packed a decent carving knife in a checked bag.

Typically on holiday we stay in villas which usually come equipped with barbecues and when in Spain I love to cook some iberico pork on it or the fantastic range of seafood available in the supermarkets. The kids also expect spaghetti bolognese at least once whilst we're away so I always take along a small bag of dried oregano with me. We never eat breakfast out (unless staying in a city) so it varies by person, eggs of some description, cereal, fruit, yoghurt or smoothies.

If we're staying in a city it's usually just a long weekend or a one night stop over so I'm not interested in cooking, I'd much rather eat out.

I love visiting local markets and usually end up buying artisan breads, salamis, cheeses, tomatoes etc to make a quick tasty meal. I usually stay in the same accommodation for a minimum of two weeks so I visit the supermarket in the car at the start to stock up salad dressings, oil etc. We never eat breakfast out.

What I cook depends on what is provided implement wise. Where I stay in the Canary Islands, there are no casserole dishes but plenty pans but when in Tavira in Portugal, I sometimes roast a chicken, which can then be eaten cold the following day with salad.

Philip had the best response and agree 100%. I like to cook at home - I have really great quality knives, pots & pans and access to plenty of seasonings. I don't see how I'm "saving money" cooking in a holiday apartment rental if I'm actually having to shell out money for things I am going to be forced to discard at some point. Sorry, not going to risk packing a bottle of olive oil from city to city in the one carry-on I have with me only to find out the top wasn't securely screwed on and it leaked all over my clothing. And why would I want to have to spend my free time running off to the local store to buy a set of cheap knives because the cheap knives supplied with the rental are even worse? That expedition is actually "costing" me time that could be better spent exploring the actual landmarks I came to see. And now I'm supposed to use some crappy pan that is all scratched up?

An apartment rental is fine if you just want to do some really basic things - cook some eggs for breakfast, prepare a snack or pack a picnic lunch, make a salad to go with a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken from the local market, or cook something really simple like cacio e pepe. But I don't see that I'm saving all that much money from it. With all the food halls springing up all over Europe, prepared foods stores and the small specialty stores and takeaway spots, not to mention the plethora of bars that now offer small plates which you can piece together to easily make a meal, I can spend close to the same amount I'd spend buying a bunch of groceries to cook myself a meal and instead experience more of the local foods without having to eat out at a traditional sit-down restaurant every night.

A lot depends on what you're planning to do whilst on holiday/vacation. Two weeks sunning yourself in a Spanish villa is a marked difference between a two week jaunt encompassing a number of cities/sights.

I agree, if I'm in Rome for a weekend I want to explore Rome not spend time at a supermarket and cooking meals however if my holiday consists of blissful relaxation around a pool then there's nothing I enjoy more than grocery shopping abroad and cooking food that I and my family enjoy.

My New York Times cooking email just arrived, and it offered up 36 "because the dishwasher is you" recipes (side note: this kind of scared me because I want to know how the NYT knows I don't have a dishwasher!). Not sure if you can access without a subscription, but here's the link just in case:

https://cooking.nytimes.com/68861692-nyt-cooking/2370458-because-the-dishwasher-is-you-36-delicious-one-pot-or-pan-dinners

Ingredient list:

balsamic vinegar
olive oil
salt and pepper
fresh garlic
couple of shallots or small onions
fresh parsley
fresh dill
creme fraiche or marscapone
lemons
small jar dijon mustard
white wine
butter
chicken stock cubes

Dishes -
chicken piccata - saute chicken in olive oil and butter with s & p. Remove chicken. Add some shallot and a little garlic, saute and then deglaze with white wine and lemon. Serve over chicken and pasta/rice or with roasted potatoes - garnish with parsley.
Mustard chicken - same as above except omit the lemon juice and add a teaspoon of dijon along with about 1/2 cup chicken stock.
Creamy chicken- follow the above instructions but (no lemon) stir in a bit of creme fraiche or marscapone and fresh parsley. Saute a few mushrooms before adding the wine if you have them.
Lemon Dill Chicken - same as above, but add fresh dill. - If you have leftovers, chop up the chicken, add a little cream or milk and you've got a nice chicken salad.
Balsamic chicken - cut chicken into cubes and saute in olive oil with some minced shallots and garlic. Add a couple tablespoons of balsamic and a teaspoon or so of mustard.
All these dishes also work with thin pork cutlets.
The piccata works with shrimp and langoustines as well.
To help " use up" items, use a little dijon in your balsamic dressing.
Those are off the top of my head, but given more time I could probably add more dishes with a few fresh ingredients (peppers, onions, zucchini, etc., etc.)
Clean out the fridge soup: buy some fresh tomatoes or a can of diced ones. Chop up zucchini, peppers, potatoes, green beans - whatever you've got in the fridge. Saute a shallot, onion (again whatever you've got) with some garlic in olive oil and garlic. Add the dense veg first - potatoes (diced small so they cook), peppers, etc., etc. Saute until starting to soften. Add the more tender veg and saute. Add some leftover white wine (HA!) to deglaze. Add some chicken stock and the tomatoes. Throw in any leftover parsley or rosemary if you've got it. Bring to boil and reduce to simmer for 15 minutes or so. Taste and adjust salt and pepper.

The dishes follow a similar theme, but when broken up with restaurant meals and cheese and charcuterie dinners, provide enough variety to keep us fed and happy.

These are the types of things we make when we rent apartments - and I generally have very little left at the end of our trip!!

If in France on a chilly evening, a simple meal involves buying pre-made quenelles in a barquette and sauce Nantua in a jar (Giraudet is a reliable brand). Both would be in the grocer's refrigerated section.

Pop in the oven for 30 minutes, in the meantime make up a salad with pre-washed greens (roquette always a nice touch), olive oil, a little lemon juice and some diced tomato, salt and pepper.

Serve with a baguette from the boulangerie around the corner and whatever color of wine you prefer.

Comfort food.

At this moment we're in a French "vacation village" where everyone else loads their car from home, bringing everything. I didn't think or plan beyond two bath towels and two kitchen towels, and my rubber gloves, so here I am in Provence with only butter, olive oil and salt--not even herbs. (I should check the bushes to see what can be culled.)
So with local veggies I'll make the chachuka CL just linked to in the Times. Pork chops day one, eggs day two, throw in the rest of white beans cooked in tomato to stretch it out.
I also use lentils to stretch meals out.
Bouillon cubes are my friends--lots of veal, Mediterranean herb, mushroom flavors etc. I'll buy rabbit legs or chicken at the butcher and use bouillon cubes and tomatoes or cream for seasoning. I bring cubes to the US to use.

Other meals this trip--bottled of fish soup w/ cheese and croutons, supermarket made brandade de morue (salt cod + mashed potatoes), Toulouse sausage with the beans, beefsteak, green salad, cheese , sheep's milk yogurt (mmm), A bunch of local pâte and hams.

Don't eat out too often but when we do we go to Michelin listed restaurants. But to be fair, this is our second home. In a "foreign" country, we'd eat out daily, all price points, and try to experience as many different aspects of a cuisine as possible.

Great idea for a question, Laurel. We need to start a website about cooking away from home
Love the Alto Adige.

PS. Thanks for thé quenelles idea, Bob.

I’ve cooked spare ribs, turkey legs, eggs, bratwurst. My wife has cooked some low calorie frozen dinners. I like to have cereal for breakfast rather than rolls. My wife prefers scrambled eggs to boiled

I’ve cooked spare ribs, turkey legs, eggs, bratwurst. My wife has cooked some low calorie frozen dinners. I like to have cereal for breakfast rather than rolls. My wife prefers scrambled eggs to boiled

I have multiple severe food allergies, so we eat in a lot. We also eat pretty clean and with the exception of fresh fruits, veg, and meat I don't eat it if it doesn't have a label I can read. Breakfast is eggs, yogurt, fruit, oatmeal and/or a gluten free bread item if available. Lunch is salads or sandwiches, and often a picnic. Sometimes, we just go into a local market and buy picnic food for that particular lunch. Dinner is usually a meat like steak, chicken, breast, pork chop, or ground beef or sausage, depending. Along with a vegetable and salad. We use salt, pepper, fresh herbs occasionally, and if I can find a bottle of tabasco we use it the entire trip. Occasionally, we will eat out if I can find an allergy safe restaurant. I would love to eat out more, but eating in is a necessity to keep from a severe reaction.

A friend of mine who always cooks while traveling uses a 7 day pill container to bring her spices from home. She says that it works very well and allows her the variety of spices she uses to cook with.

Greetings,

I find that after a few days on vacation and eating most meals out, We start to suffer from restaurant food fatigue. (Sometimes, we just want a sandwich and soup:) We very seldom eat out at home. Addressing the issue of stocked kitchens...
Depending on where and how long we travel, I pack a "Travel Kitchen", that I put together. Think Back-packing items in terms of # of items, sizes and weights. Sometimes it's just the basics, sometimes I add more things, such as:
-Mini spice kit (you can add as many of the containers that you wish, but each one holds 2 spices. Think it's called a spice rocket or spice missile. REI carries them. Probably Amazon also).
-Small cutting board
-Human Gear Eating utensil set-2
-Sea To Summit has a line of collapsible cooking pots, small to large size.
-Sea To Summit collapsible cup & bowl/plate set
-Flat pack snapping bowl & plate set. (beats the old plastic coffee can lid & weighs less)
-Mini Fry Pan sized to cook 2 eggs

-Small cooking utensil set found in Walmart for $4.99.

-My favorite tea, sugar, hot cocoa packets, Bullion seasoning

-Sharp ceramic knife found at TJMaxx, for $3.00
-Pot holder, tea towel, dish cloth, tiny bottle dish soap
-3 binder clips, 2 clothes pins
All this fits in a small packing cube. We have used this with great success when we rented an RV to tour Iceland. The "kitchen" in the RV wasn't as well stocked as it should have been, so we were happy to have some of our own things from home.

This is really easy to assemble. Ours is always packed, ready for the next trip, here at home or abroad.

The first time we went to Italy and had a villa rental, I somehow thought I would instantly turn into this amazing cook and somehow know how to cook whole Italian meals right away.
(I hate cooking generally, except to stay alive....)
What was I thinking!!!
Now, 15 years on and still renting apartments; we now buy crackers, bread, butter, lots of cheese and salami and prosciutto, milk, cereal, OJ, yogurt, salad vegetables, fresh fruit, eggs, pasta and some sauces, on the first day there.
We eat breakfast in, coffee out, lunch and dinner out; and have lots of things we can cobble together from this basic list of foods here if we don't feel like eating out.
The only thing I bring from home is a lot of teabags.
I have bought the occasional item there and left it behind; such as a paring knife, chopping board and corkscrew.
Everything tastes great on your little balcony or terrace, with a glass of wine, looking over the rooftops of Florence or Paris!

My goodness, gagetgirl, that is some list!

In 6 weeks of travel we have prepared many salads (a nice counterpoint at dinner to a heavy lunch), a huge pot of chicken and vegetable soup, chili (sort of, as had no chili powder nor cumin), an amazing chicken pie (with a pre-made Italian shortcrust) that I hope I can replicate at home, scrambled eggs with salmon or prosciutto for breakfast, toast when we had a toaster (thank you British apartment owners!), lots of yogurt with berries or bananas, several types of pasta (Amatriciana and one with burst cherry tomatoes,mint, and ricotta from NYT Cooking), plus a pasta made with a frozen seafood assortment one can get in Italy. (I wish we had THAT at home. It is terrific!)

I've left behind some olive oil in two places while another apartment had olive oil, balsamico, and several other seasonings, thankfully. We've also tossed out out-of-date food we found a couple of places.

We have a few days left scarfing seafood in Liguria (no need to cook!) then back to Switzerland where I am happy to cook to save some money and include some healthier options.

Our apartment has no outdoor space and grills are prohibited. As a result, when we travel, we rent houses with grills and cookout in the grill every single night.

We carry our spices from home. Fruit, eggs, yogurt, some sausage for breakfast. Lunch depends on what we are near. Normally, sandwiches. Dinner, pastas, sauteed vegetables, chicken. We love to visit local grocery stores.

Thanks Laurel :)

It seems like more than it actually is, as the majority of things pack mostly flat.
This would work best if you are checking luggage, but can be plussed up or down for carry-on.

Enjoy your Travels.

Regards,
Gagetgirl

Suppers only. Always salad with a rotation of 1) Boiled potatoes. 2) Cold cuts and cheese 3) Store-bought (mobile van even better) roast chicken 4) Cheese on toast (nothing comes close) 5) Scrambled eggs and bacon. 6) Pizza 7) Store-bought lasagna, pie or other warm dish. Works in every country. Crusty bread and butter at the ready. Fried prosciutto in the salad if I am feeling particularly adventurous. Fruit for dessert optional. Never fry onions, farm to table in 30 minutes max.

Tic Tac containers make great little containers for spices - I usually travel with the essentials and use only if the kitchen does not have the spice I'd like to use. Tevana also has small containers in their sampler pack of tea, so if you like tea, they're an option too since you get six containers in the sampler set. You can also go into sporting goods stores and look at the backpacking options, there are some for ultra-lightweight backpackers. And last, you can put spices in straws - they're just next to impossible to reseal when you're traveling, so if you make small straws, you could use as needed and toss the straw since it'd be hard to take once open.

Frozen pizza.....

James E, 🤣 I do not think I could bring myself to do that in Italy. A couple places I was tempted but we did not have ovens in two of five apartments this trip. We did try to do a fresh bake-at-home one from Waitrose in London a couple of years ago. While I was preheating the oven, the glass door shattered. (Google it. It is not uncommon!) We had to order from Deliveroo!

Anything I can cook in under an hour. In practice this means a lot of saute, stirfry, and other skillet dinners, salad or sandwich lunches and egg breakfasts. A soup base plus ham or sausage makes a nice change.

I bring spices from home in pill sized zip lock bags. Most apartments come with soy sauce, salt and pepper, and olive oil.

I try to buy things we don't get at home or at least not reasonably priced such as: lamb, rabbit, duck, carp, and qual eggs. Once we got frog legs and in Prauge we had elk. We also look for local cheeses, mushrooms, olives, cured meats, and sausages. Finding a bakery is a plus. If we are somewhere coastal, sea food. I also try local condiments, aioli, chutney, pickled things, capers, sauerkraut, and so on.

Laurel, we take two or three trips to Budapest each year. I am fortunate in that I own the oven we use. No broken glass yet. The only thing more complicated to use than that damn oven is the washer/dryer. Both way, way over engineered and with cryptic symbols or Hungarian instructions. Part of the charm of the place. I am also fortunate in that our place is about 200 feet from a damn good wine bar with a short but outstanding menu; and take out (wine and food). By the way, the frozen pizzas are terrible.... (and i am tempted to smuggle in some Wolf Brand Chili on the next trip).

In Europe, we only do breakfast in the apartment because it is hard to find protein based quick meals. I buy eggs, breakfast sausage or some sort of meat and cheese. One pan, 10 min and we are out! The thought of making dinner in an apartment sounds romantic but I know myself, I am so dead tired after walking all day and we don't want to be tied to getting back to the apartment so we can have enough time to cook, eat and clean. At night, we like to find a restaurant, whenever and wherever we are and relax. We have bought food to go and taken it back to the apartment, played cards drinking wine and having some laughs (good memories!). We also buy fruit and tomatoes to snack on for the apartment. Now when we go to Palms Springs, total different animal. I cook breakfast, lunch and dinner at the apartment/condo.

Even when I have a nice apartment, I don't spend enough time there to prepare anything. The food tends to be something I can throw together and eat fairly quickly or simply finger foods to snack on. I typically buy sandwich makings (bread/rolls, meat, cheese, mustard, olive spread), snacks (danish, fruit, cheese, nuts, chocolate, etc.) and wine or beer.

When we are in Germany, I pick up a ton of the Knorr Salad dressing mixes (they are powder). At home some chicken, some olive oil and sprinkle the dressing mixes over the the chicken, bake, and you are good to go.